Directing
"On the 30th April 2017 world-famous climber Ueli Steck died on Mount Nuptse whilst acclimatizing for one of his biggest climbs yet – climbing both Mount Everest and Mount Lhotse without the use of bottled oxygen. A year later, Ueli’s close friends Jonathan Griffith and Sherpa Tenji attempted to finish off his project. Tenji would try the climb without bottled oxygen whilst internationally award-winning cameraman Jonathan Griffith captures the entire story with a 8K 3D VR Ambisonic camera."
Ueli Steck (Switzerland), Simone Moro (Italy) and Jon Griffith (GB) are not like 95% of the climbers on Everest: they don't use oxygen, altimeters (improperly called Sherpas), or fixed ropes. In 2013, the trio aims to repeat the arduous Western Spur. The Sherpas have the mission to equip the mountain with fixed ropes on this famous day, up to Camp 3: ropes without which customers of commercial expeditions could not climb Everest. An argument ensued, insults were hurled from both sides. The confrontation at Camp 2 degenerated: a Sherpa water bottle physically attacked the trio of Europeans. Blows and stones were thrown and threats led the trio to flee the mountain. The Réel Rock film crew, which is part of the climbing team, films this chaos without complacency.
Immersive documentary in two parts, filmed in high-resolution 360° 3D, which follows Alex Honnold's journey through Yosemite National Park, home to the famous El Capitan – immortalized in the film “Free Solo”, then at Red Rocks , in Nevada, west of Las Vegas. Then it's off to Europe where he teams up with Swiss climber Nicolas Hojac in some of the most difficult solo free climbs in the Dolomites. In episode 2, the two climbers tackle the Directe americaine on the Aiguille du Dru in Chamonix and the Kuffner ridge on Mont Maudit, the second highest peak of the Mont Blanc massif, in free solo.
Touching the Sky takes the viewer on a voyage of human powered flight like never before - following wingsuit base jumpers in the European Alps, and a paragliding team across the Himalayas in Pakistan.
